Role of the Dentist in the Management of Burning Mouth Syndrome: Preliminary Observational Study and Literature Review

Abstract

The aims of this observational study are the following: to identify diagnosis and treatment strategies for Burning Mouth Syndrome (BMS) according to current literature; to compare data collected in a sample of patients suffering from BMS with the data reported in the literature; to highlight the role of the dentist in the management of BMS. A sample of 10 consecutively treated patients was recruited to fulfill the research inquiries. All patients received a BMS diagnosis and underwent medical and psychological therapy. The patients were asked to evaluate their pain levels before and after treatment, filling in a Visual Analogic Scale and a Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NRS) to rate to what extent the treatment had been successful. A literature review was conducted on Pubmed and Cochrane using different keyword combinations. In the study group, 9/10 patients declared that the therapy gave satisfactory results. 4/10 patients reported benefit from the prescription of Clonazepam. Twelve articles were selected in the literature review. The review of literature presented in this work does not offer unequivocal evidence of Burning Mouth Syndrome diagnosis and treatment. Results obtained from the sample of 10 patients cannot be considered useful evidence to establish a clinical protocol.